Your Goal Grade
Highlight the header for the column below to indicate which grade you plan to work toward in the course. Meeting the basic requirements for your chosen letter grade, according to the table below, is mandatory.
| A Work | B Work | C Work |
-Misses one class or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates all readings thoroughly -Makes substantive comments in discussions -Completes all assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Work demonstrates intellectual engagement, care, effort, and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates substantially, contributes to vision, works equally with peers | -Misses two classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Annotates readings -Often participates in discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes most SAs on time -Work demonstrates care, effort and growth in response to feedback -Collaborates equally, completes required work | -Misses three classes or less, or completes make-up work for excused absences -Completes most readings -Sometimes adds to discussion -Completes all major assignments on time (or has an approved extension request) -Completes at least four SAs -Meets minimal expectations on assignments; shows limited growth in response to feedback -Completes required collaborative work |
First-Week Introduction
For this semester I chose 5 particular goals that I thought would best represent my academic journey over the course of this semester. I mostly excited to get a better understanding of the ways of research and also how versatile I can be with it. I honestly think the data sheet will probably be an assignment that I might struggle with simply because anything that something to do with google sheets has never worked in my favor. Some strategies that I want to set for myself this semester is definitely time management because that is something I struggle with often and I often find myself overwhelmed and frustrated in the end so I definitely want to try to have it down pack before the semester ends.
Midterm Introduction
Now that the first half of the semester is over, I want to say that the time spent was smoother than I thought. I do enjoy the open discussions we have at the start of class, reflecting over the reading amongst my peers has helped me in a way that I didn’t know I needed. Just hearing their point of views from the assigned reading allows me to view the text from multiple perspectives which I think is very helpful especially at times where I was totally lost and didn’t have a clear understanding of what the reading was even talking about. A goal that I think I most excelled in is being presented with a new topic and taking a great amount of interest in it, even if it didn’t click the first time, I still found myself trying to put it in a way where I can find some sort of amusement out of it and I did in the end. For example, the assigned textbook for our class, I find myself still going back to it when I comes to wanting to learn more about the ways of research and just versatile it can be.
Final Introduction
The end of the semester has arrived and I can truly say that I’ve learned so much, not only about the importance of research but who I am as a person when it comes to the types of research I think best suits me and why. For the goals that I set out for myself at the beginning of the semester I think I did reach all of them since we did have many assignments the required me to put the skills that I already had to use that demonstrates that I did in fact achieve set goals. Something that I did learn over the course of this semester is how versatile and fun research can be. Something that I plan on taking with me is that research is meant to be informative yet enjoyable.
Course Goals
Goal 1 (25%)
Based on (2a): Take a problem and create various of solutions
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| When it comes to my encounters with our writing or research assignments, I can come up with a handful of solutions that contribute to a bigger and better solution to my issue at the moment instead of just getting frustrated and giving up. | -Data review sheet -Top five assignments -reflections -assigned readings | As the writing assignments continue to come, more improvement will be shown because I’m actually take the created solution and applying when I feel as though it is needed. This can be for my top 5 assignments, my points will be in dept than the one before, my questions will be more precise and straightforward. |
- Data review sheets
This assignment is an example of the goal listed because it shows that when i was faced with a task i was able to tackle it from multiple ways until i found the right one to execute it.
- Top 5 assignments
This is a example of the goal listed because I had trouble in the beginning with making sure i met all of the requirements when completing the assignment so because i was able to complete the assignment without any negative feedback shows i was able to tackle a problem and come up a working solution.
- Reflections
This is an example of the goal listed because when it came to the assigned readings I didn’t really get an understanding of the purpose of the text but after reading and annotating I was able to complete the reflections without any confusion along the way.
- Assigned readings
The assigned readings were not a walk in the park for me, i had trouble understanding the point of the assigned texts and also because they tended to be very lengthy so i had to come up with some ways to help me try to understand the text without getting that frustrated.
- Group projects
The group projects were something i really enjoyed but it also had its cons such as time management and teamwork. Everyone has their own schedules, responsibilities, and some of the cases may be going through something. So it was our job as a team to come up with some solutions so that we can appropriately execute each and every problem so that in the end we got done with what needed to be done.
Goal 2 (25%)
Based on (7a): Explore a topic and show a great amount of interest in it
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| Actively engage in lectures pertaining to a new topic and when we have guest lectures and take down notes that deem as important. | -open discussions – Top 5 – reflections – group projects – readings | Taking down any information given to me from guest lectures, assigned articles; showcasing how the information is useful to me now and in the long run. |
- open discussions
The open discussions we had in class was a good way for me to show what I grabbed from the assigned text and because I was able to elaborate on something some one else said or just speak in general shows that i took interest in what the reading was talking about.
- Top 5 assignments
In the top 5 assignments we have to basically pull information that we thought best stood out and why, so i think this shows that I did find interest in whatever was assigned at the time.
- Reflections
The reflections, in my opinion, is a better for me to show how great of a interest i do have in a text at the time because there i’m able to get into more depth compared to the top 5.
- Group projects
The group project is something that I greatly enjoyed because I relate and understand the information the being researched. I also find it very informative simply because it’s an ongoing issue that affects not only me but so many other people who look like me, so this was one of those assignments that i was really in-tune with.
- Readings
The readings i do so happen to enjoy, i think that they tend to very informative and when i do break it down to better my understanding I often mind myself finding it very interesting, sometimes.
Goal 3 (25%)
Based on (5b): Conduct in depth research on any given topic.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| when conducting research for my assignments, I will use websites such as google scholar and SIUE library search. | Final project reflections find a survey assignment | When it comes to research in this class, I will show sources that I chose to support my evidence as well as why I decided on that source. Answering why makes it more reliable than the rest. |
- Final project
In our final project we had to find 10 post that correlated with our chosen topic. This project shows that i can use my own resources to my advantage and be successful in the end.
- Reflections
For my reflections i had to show that i was able to understand the given and also what i was able to pull from it. This shows that im able to do well rounded research on a topic because I’m able to tell readers what i was able to interpret.
- Find a survey assignment
In this assignment we had to find a set of surveys and do a brief summary of each and what type of survey we think it comes off as. This assignment shows that i can conduct in depth research.
Goal 4 (25%)
Based on (4a): Learn about other cultures and foreign settings so that I can have meaningful interactions and address any issues within that environment.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| when we do our oral surveys for the centerville project, I make sure my questions are on topic but also be cautious of what I ask out of the respect for the residents and what they have been through. | Group projects community visits reflections | I can use assignments that contain foreign information. This could be economic or social; and what I was able to grasp from it. |
group projects
Since my group and I research focus was based on cahokia heights, we had to conduct a great amount of research to prepare us for the oral history interview that we had to have with the residents of cahokia.
-community visits
When visiting cahokia to conduct our oral history interviews we were able to learn more about the residents and what their day to day lives consist of.
-reflections
In one of my reflections i talked about the history Gullah Geechee as well as their descendants. In this assignment i learned more about a different culture which i found very engrossing. Just learning more about their cultural heritage was very informative because i think it’s important to know that there are other cultures that exist outside of mine and they have their owns ways that are just as important as the next.
Goal 5 (25%)
Based on (3c): To take a variety of approaches in hopes of coming up with a solution so that I won’t have to face the same problem in the future.
| What will you do to learn the content/ develop the skill? | What examples will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? | What characteristics of the chosen examples demonstrate you have met your goal? |
| when I do encounter an issues as far as our research projects or top 5 assignments, I will take various of steps so that in the end I can come up with a solution that sticks and is effective | Group projects top 5 readings reflections | If I were to come face with an issue pertaining to any assignments,I can explain how I overcame and how I plan on avoiding it in the future. |
- group projects
When it came to our issues within our group project one of the solutions that we came up with was meeting up one day out of the week outside of class and that definitely helped us get our project done in a timely manner.
- Top 5 assignments
The one this that i did that stuck when it come to completing the top 5 assignment was making annotations on the assigned texts and that helped me come up with questions and also helped me express me opinion on certain information without feeling confused in a way.
- Readings
The readings was something that i struggled with and the one thing that did help me was making annotations.
- Reflections
The two solutions i found to really help me complete the reflections was re reading the text and making annotations.
